Shades

I'm cheating on this one. This isn't exactly a brand new peice of fiction. It's an excerpt from my work in progress. I'm running out of ideas here people, so just bear with me.

There were
broken lines everywhere, coiling around each other into roiling balls
tiny little worlds of their own. They would coalesce and linger, tie
themselves into knots, then suddenly fall apart, the individual
possibilities floating away from each other. Not seeing, but feeling
this she was mesmerized. What is
going on?

And then she saw them. She saw their shadowy legs making motions
like they were walking, their mouths moving, lips shaping words that
made no sound. They were gray and translucent; she could see the
buildings and the streets behind them. There were three of them, all
may have been young men, but it was hard to tell. She had a sense of
what they were, but no sense of who they were.

Cole grabbed
her upper arm, squeezing tight. Myra winced at the pain, but didn’t
make a sound. She saw his face pulled tight, his eyes wide, as they
followed the shades. He was terrified. Was this why he had been on
such high alert? How had he known they would be here?

The trio of
phantoms, lost souls from another world, were walking together. They
knew each other. Whether they were related or not, she couldn’t
tell, but their lines curled around each other, creating a little
ball of reality for them. The way they moved was so strange to look
at. Their bodies flowed through this world as if they were
underwater, but moving at normal speed. They were aware of their
surroundings, to an extent. She watched as the trio split a telephone
pole, one going to the right, the others to the left, even though she
was certain they could have walked straight through it, like ghosts.

The trio was
moving towards them. Cole’s grip on her arm squeezed even harder,
and this time she made a noise. He pulled at her, nearly yanking her
off of her feet, flattening himself against the brick wall of an old
deli. Myra saw why he was so scared then.

There were
more shades appearing around them, balls of realities forming and
curling together, allowing singletons, and duos, whole packs of
wandering shades to materialize into existence. They filled the
street and the sidewalk crowding each other. Realities collided in
ways never meant to be, and Myra felt the reverberations through the
lines. And she could hear them.

None of them
made a sound. Not a peep, or a whisper, or a shout. But she could
hear them all the same, a dry hiss in the air, that held words that
she would never understand.

And she could
feel them. Feel the sadness and fear. Some were merely perplexed.
They didn’t know where they were, maybe they saw the same things
she did, maybe they moved alone in their own worlds without another
living soul. Some despaired. They were lost, and had no hope of
finding their ways home. Some were angry, shouting at the world, at
the others they could see, raging at the universe. Some held no
emotions, only emptiness. They had wandered for so long.

All of this
poured into her as she pressed against the brick wall, no longer
caring about the grip on her arm that would leave a bruise in the
shape of a hand print. She could hear herself breathing, quick gasps
trying to suck in all the oxygen she could get before the shades
could steal the air. She could hear Cole, he was crying. Not sobbing,
or whimpering, only a low moan soaked in tears.

As quickly as
they were there, the shades were gone. Their lines fell and drifted
away from each other, each of the realities returning to their own
worlds, or to some other line. She felt them leave, some abruptly,
others faded more slowly until there was only a shadow and whisper,
then nothing.

My favorite line is this, "She watched as the trio split a telephone pole, one going to the right, the others to the left, even though she was certain they could have walked straight through it, like ghosts."

Welcome back to Achievements/Goals. I missed several postings, because my laptop crapped out on me. I had been making it work for almost a year after my 90 pound dog jumped on it, breaking a hinge, and cracking the bevel around the screen; but every time I moved the stupid thing the the lid moved a little, eventually causing chunks of plastic to break off and about a third of the screen to go black. When faced with the decision of whether to repair it or replace it, I went the repair route which took three weeks.

Hey, did you know that Toshiba no longer makes computers? Well, I didn't until I went to get mine fixed. Apparently, replacement parts have to be hand delivered from Japan, because that's how long it felt like I was sans laptop.

Hey, do you know how much it costs to replace basically the entire lid of a Toshiba laptop? Neither did I until I had to choke back the tears as I handed my credit card to the Geek Squad guy.

Good Evening. I missed some time, yes. I got busy with life, but I hope to be back on track. Without further ado, here's what has happened over the past couple of weeks:

Achievements I've been slowly working my way through Camp NaNoWriMo this month. I fell of the wagon pretty hard after four days, but with my low word count goal, it has been fairly easy to make up the lost time. I think I'll be able to finish within goal.I did a reading at my writing group two weeks ago. I got positive comments all around, which surprised me, because I was pretty sure that the best thing I could bring to the table was mediocre. I'm still not ready to accept positive feedback. That's the weirdest thing with me. I will absolutely accept criticism without fail, but give me a compliment, and I'm sure you're "just being nice."GoalsPretty much the same as they have been. I'm trying to just get myself on a baseline of competence before trying anything new.Continue to …